The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-02-09
PILLARS OF SMOKE
REV. DR.. TALmAGE'S SERMON AT
THE TABERNACLE.

what n True Christian Has to Endure
I'm the Service of Christ-Persecution
by the church's Parasites, both Prot
estant and Catholic.
BRooKLYS, Feb. 6--To-day was moving
day in the Brooklyn Tabernacle, as the annual
pew letting has just occurred and many have
changed places. This church combines the
two plans Of pew rental and free church. The
rented pews this year yielded an advance on
all previous years, SO that the income win be
about So 900. But about two thousand sit
tings are always kept free, 50 that no one may
complain that he cannot worship here for
lack Of means. This morning Professor
Browne rendered organ, first sonata In ID
minor by Ritter, and the congregation sang
the hymn:
Our God, our help ia ages past,
Our hope for years TO come.
The subject OF the sermon was APiIlars Of
Smoke and the text was taken from Solo
mons Song, iii, 8: "Who is this that cometh
out Of the wilderness Ike pillars Of smoker
DIR. Talmage said:
The architecture OF the smoke is wondrous,
whether God with his finger curls it into a
cloud, or rounds it into a dome, or points it
the text, HOSTS il in pillar. Watch it wind
ing up from the country farm house in the
early morning, showing that the pastoral in
dnstries have begun; or see it ascending from
tho chimneys Of the city, telling Of the homes
fed, the factories tuFningsout valuable fabric,
the printing presses preparing book and news
paper, and all the ten thousand wheels in
motion. On a clear day this vapor spoken of
mounts with such buoyaucy, and spreads
such a delicate veil across the sky, and traces
such graceful lines Of circle and semi-circle,
and waves and losses and sinks and scars and
scatters with such afiiuence of shape
and color and suggestiveness that il you
have never noticed il you arc like a man
who has all his life lived in Par.s and yet
never seen the Luxembourg, and all his life
In Rome and never seen the Vatican, and all
his life at Lsockport and never seen Niagara.
Forty-four times the Bible speaks Of the
smoke, and it is about time that somebody
breaches a sermon recognizing this strange,
weird, beautiful, elastic, charming, terrific
and fascinating vapor. Across the Bible sky
floats the smoke of Sinai, the smoke of Sodom,
the smoke of Al, the smoke of the pit, the
smoke of the volcanic hills when God touches
them, and in my text the glorious church of
God coming up out of the wilderness like
pillars Of smoke.
In the first place, these pillars Of smoke in
my text indicate tho suffering the church OF
God has endured. What do / mean by the
churchi l mean not II building not "A sect,
but those who in all ages and in all lands, and
Of all beliefs, love God and are trying TO dc
right For many centuries the heavens have
been black with the smoke OF martyrdom. II
set side by side you could girdle the earth
no Of Tax VII
burned at Hadicigh Latimer burned at
Oxford; John Rogers burned at Smithfleld
John Hooper burned at Gloucester; John
Huss burned at Constance; Lawrence Saun-
ders burned ut Coventry; Joan of Arc burned
at Rouen. Protestants have sometimes pointed
to the Catholics us prosecutors, but both
Protestant and Catholic have practiced in
famous cruelties. The Catholics, during
the reign of Hunneric, were by Protestants
put 10 the worst tortures, stripped of Their
clothing, hoisted in the air by pulleys with
weights suspended from their feet, then lei
down. and cars and eyes, nose and tongue were
amputated. and red hot plates of iron were put
against the tenderest part of their bodies
George Bancroft, the historian, says Of the
state of Maryland "In the land which
Catholics had opened TO Protestants mass
might not be said publicly; no Catholic
priest or bishop might utter his faith in 9
voice OF persuasion; no Catholic might teach
the young. If Maynard child of Papisi
would but become an apostate the law wrest
ed for him from his parents share Of theii
property Such were the methods adopted
to prevent the growth of popery." Speaking
of Ireland, Bancroft, the historian, says
"Such priests as were permitted to reside il
Ireland were required TO be registered, and
nj
scribed limits All Papists exercising eccle
siastical jurisdiction, all monks, friars and
regular priests, and all priests not then &C
tually in parishes and to be registered, were
banishcd from Ireland under pain of trans
portation and, on return, of being hanged
drawn and quartered."
Catholicism as well as Professionalism has
had its martyrs. 1t does seem as if when any
one sect got complete dominancy in any land
the devil Of persecution and cruelty took
possession of that sect. Then see the Catho
lies after tho Huguenots. See the Gentiles
after the jews in Touraine, where a great pit
was due and fire lighted at the bottom of the
pit, and 100 Jewish victims were consumed
See thu Presbyterian parliament of England
moro tyrannical in their treatment of oppo
nents than had been the criminal courts
Persecution a ;aiust the Baptists by Pedo
Baptists Persecution of the Established
church AGAINST the Methodist church. Per
seculion a,rainst tho QuaSers. Persecution
against the Prcsbyterians. Under Emperol
Dioclctian III, 900 Christians were massacred
and ZOO 900 more of them died from Danish
ment and exposure Witness the suffering
of the WaIdcnses, os the Albigenses, of tn
HISTORIANS. Witness ST. Bartholomew mas
sacre. Witness the Duke of Alva driving on
of life "a, 900 Christians. Witness Herod, an.
Nero, and Decius, and Hildebrand, and Tor
quemada, and Earl of Montfort, and Lor,
Claverhousc, who, when told that he mus
give account for his cruelties, said: 81 hav,
no need to account to man, and as for God,
will take Him in my own hands" A red lin
runs through the church history of nineteel
hundred years-a line of blood. Not by tn
hundreds of thousands but by the million
must we count those slain for Christs sake
No wonder John Milton put the groans of tn
martyrs TO an immortal tune, writing:
Avenge, o Lord, thy slaughtered saints, who's
bones
Lie scattered ON the Alpine mountains cold.
The smoke of martyrs homes and martyr,
bodies if rolling up all at once would hav
eclipscd the MONDAY sun and turned tn
brightest day the world ever saw into mi6
night "Who is she that cometh up out c
the wilderness like pillars of smoker
Has persecution -easedi Ask that youn
man, who is trying to be Christian, in
store or factory, where from morning to nigh
he is the butt of all the mean witticisms q
unbelieving employees Ask that wife, who's
husband makes her fondness for the house Q
God and even her kneeling prayer by the bed
side derision, and is no more fit for her hol
companionship than filthy crow would b
fit companion for robin or a golden oriols
Compromise with the world and surrender Z
its conventionalities and 1t may let you alone
but all who win live godly in Christ Jesu
must suffer persecution. BE theatre going
card playing, wine drinking, round dancin
Christian, and you may escape criticism an
social pressure. But be an up and down, on
and out follower of Christ, and wording
will wink to wording as he speaks you
name, and You viii be put in many
doggerel and snubbed by those no
worthy TO blacken your Oldest shoes
When the bridge ut Ashtabula brok,
and let down the most of the carload of pas
sengers to instant death Mr.. r. p. Bliss wa.
seated ON one side of the aisle of the cal
writing down a Christian song which he was
composing, and on the other side group OF
men were playing cards. Whose landing
place in eternity would you prcfer-that OF
4. r. Bliss, the gospel SINGER, or of the card
playersl
a great complaint comes from the theatres
about the ladies' high hats, because they OBJ
struct the view of the stage, and a lady re
porter asked me the other day what thought
about it, and told her that if the indecent
pictures OF actresses in the show windows Of
Brooklyn and New York We're accurate pict
ures OF what goes on in many of the theatres
night by night then it would be well If the
ladies' hats were mile high, so as to com
plefely obstruct the vision Ii prufessed
Christians go to such places during the weel
no one viii ever persecute them for their re.
hgion, for they have none, and they are the
joke OF hell
But let them live a consecrated and Chris
tan life and they viii soon run against sheer.